Plagiarism Guide - Swinburne University of Technology

2.2.2 Specific advice for I.T. studentsThe Department of Computer Science at RMIT University (RMIT) has specific advice forI.T. students that is applicable to Swinburne students undertaking I.T. subjects. They saythat sometimes students are uncertain about whether or not they have plagiarised whileworking on an assignment with friends. Answers to the following questions are likely tohelp for Swinburne students doing I.T. courses or subjects to determine whether or notthey have plagiarised. If a student has not plagiarised, the honest answer to each ofthese questions is ‘yes’.■ Has code I copied from elsewhere been fully acknowledged?■ Did I write all the rest of the program myself?■ Did I write the comments myself?■ If asked, could I explain the solution to the lecturer?■ Can I explain the purpose of every variable, declaration, function, and loop?You can ask similar questions about written assignments, for example software designdocumentation. You have not plagiarized if, for each of these questions, the honestanswer is ‘no’.■ Has anyone, other than myself or members of my team, made use of the same solution?■ Did anyone, other than myself or members of my team, contribute the design ofthe solution?■ Did anyone give me a written document to copy?■ Did I read another solution to figure out what to do, and not acknowledge orreference the document?■ Was any of this written work copied from the web and not referenced?Finally, they suggest that every single line of text taken from another source bereferenced (Department of Computer Science, RMIT, 2003). This is excellent advice and isapplicable to all written submissions for Swinburne I.T. students.Note: We have been able to use a good bit of advice from RMIT here, without plagiarisingthem, by paraphrasing their advice and then simply properly attributing the ideas to them.A guide for students at Swinburne University of Technology ■ 17